Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Evangelist Wins Lawsuit vs. San Fran. Police, ESPN

Gino Emmerich and a Christian law firm will be paid $10,000 because Emmerich was forced by San Francisco police and sports TV outlet ESPN to cease holding a “John 3:16” sign outside of the Giants ballpark in July 2014. Emmerich was singled out for holding a Christian sign among a plethora of signs and expressions of free speech by others in a crowd.

A traveling minister who carried his “John 3:16” sign to Willie Mays Plaza at AT&T Park before a Giants game, and said he was told to leave or face arrest, has settled his lawsuit for $10,000.

Gino Emmerich sued the city of San Francisco, but the settlement funds — $2,500 to Emmerich and $7,500 to his lawyer — will come from ESPN, which was filming the pregame activities and hired city police to keep order, City Attorney Dennis Herrera’s office said Tuesday. As part of the settlement, the city agreed to review the status of the plaza and the extent of the public’s right to carry signs or express opinions there.

. . . an ESPN producer walked up with four uniformed police officers and told [Emmerich] he would be arrested if he displayed his sign.

After the producer left, Emmerich said he nevertheless held the sign up in front of an ESPN camera. One of the officers then grabbed him from behind and moved him out of camera range, where police issued another arrest warning and let him go. All the while, Emmerich said, fans were in the plaza, some displaying other types of signs, though none with religious messages.

A settlement has been reached in a First Amendment lawsuit filed by The Rutherford Institute against police officers who allegedly intimidated and threatened to arrest a man who was lawfully and peacefully exercising his First Amendment rights in the Willie Mays Plaza prior to a Giants v. Dodgers game by holding up a “John 3:16” religious sign in the public plaza in front of the San Francisco Giants ballpark. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of Gino Emmerich, alleged that police officers violated Emmerich’s right to free speech and assembly when they forcefully removed him from Willie Mays Plaza, surrounded him and threatened him with arrest if he did not cease displaying his “John 3:16” sign. Under the settlement agreement, the City and County of San Francisco have agreed to conduct an investigation about the status of Willie Mays Plaza in connection with the rights of citizens to exercise their First Amendment rights there.

On Sunday, July 27, 2014, prior to the start of a Giants v. Dodgers baseball game, Gino Emmerich arrived at Willie Mays Plaza carrying a “John 3:16” sign, a religious reference to a central tenet of Christianity. Other people were in the plaza, some displaying signs and otherwise communicating messages. Also in the plaza was a makeshift broadcast booth put together for a live broadcast and discussion of the Giants v. Dodgers game for ESPN SportsCenter. . . . Emmerich stationed himself in view of the camera, behind the commentators, and held up his John 3:16 sign. While Emmerich was holding up his sign, a police officer grabbed him from behind by his shirt and neck and moved him out of the view of the camera. Once Emmerich was clear of the cameras, he was surrounded by four police officers and warned, “If you go over there and hold that sign again, we will arrest you and the sergeant will come over here and decide where we are going to take you.” Emmerich then left the plaza as to avoid the possibility of arrest and turned to The Rutherford Institute for help.

“Much of what used to be great about America—especially as it pertains to our love of freedom and our commitment to First Amendment activities—has been overshadowed by a greater desire for security and an inclination towards political correctness,” said John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “That this incident, with its police intimidation tactics, overt discrimination and censorship, took place in a public plaza dedicated to Willie Mays, a legendary baseball player who lived through an era of police tactics, discrimination and censorship, is a powerful indictment of all that is wrong with America today.”